Trafalgar Night 2014

Text of the ‘Immortal Memory’ speech given to the Royal Society of St George, Kuala Lumpur Branch on the occasion of the 209th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, 21st October 2014: 

DEPUTY HIGH COMMISSIONER MR PAUL RENNIE, CAPTAIN KEN TAYLOR THE BRITISH DEFENCE ADVISOR, MEMBERS AND GUESTS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ST GEORGE.

I WAS HONOURED TO BE ASKED TO SPEAK ON SUCH A NOTABLE OCCASION AND I THANK THE SOCIETY ON BEHALF OF MYSELF AND MY WIFE FOR A VERY ENJOYABLE DINNER. THE LAST TIME I SPOKE ON TRAFALGAR DAY WAS IN FRONT OF ABOUT 250 AMERICANS WHO ASSUMED I THINK THAT I WAS GOING TO BE TALKING EITHER ABOUT NELSON EDDY OR NELSON MANDELA.

IF WE HAD BEEN DINING AT THE ADMIRAL’S TABLE ON BOARD HMS VICTORY, WHILE BLOCKADING THE FRENCH PORTS, WE SHOULD HAVE FARED EQUALLY WELL WITH THREE COURSES ACCOMPANIED BY THREE OR FOUR WINES, CHAMPAGNE, COFFEE AND LIQUEURS.

WE WOULD HAVE BEEN IN A SHIP WHICH REQUIRED THE FELLING OF ABOUT 2,750 ENGLISH OAK TREES, THAT’S ABOUT 80 ACRES WORTH.  WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN SERVING IN A NAVY WHICH BY TRAFALGAR HAD 83 SHIPS OF THE LINE WITH 74 GUNS OR MORE AND 100 OR SO SMALLER FRIGATES. 

ON BOARD THAT FORTY YEAR OLD SHIP WERE 444 ENGLISHMEN, 67 SCOTS, 63 IRISH AND 18 WELSHMEN AS WELL AS 71 FOREIGNERS INCLUDING A SCORE OF AMERICANS. 

MANY WOULD HAVE ENDURED THE PRESSGANG.  IT WAS OF COURSE A VERY DIFFERENT, MUCH HARSHER WORLD FOR THE SAILORS OF THE DAY. MEASURED BRUTALITY WAS USED AS TRAINING AID. IN THE DAYS LEADING UP TO THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR THERE WERE 25 FLOGGINGS IN 27 DAYS ON BOARD COLLINGWOOD’S FLAGSHIP THE ROYAL SOVEREIGN

LAST WEEK I WAS MARKING ROYAL MALAYSIAN NAVY STAFF COURSE STUDENTS’ ESSAYS AND ASSESSING  THEIR PRESENTATIONS ANALYSING LEADERS AND LEADERSHIP QUALITIES. THEY HAD TO USE EXAMPLES RANGING FROM MARGARET THATCHER TO THE FIRST CALIPH OF ISLAM ABU BAKR, FROM MALCOM X TO THE EX ENGLAND RUGBY UNION CAPTAIN AND COACH MARTIN JOHNSON. THEY ALL WROTE THAT THERE WERE SO MANY THEORIES AND WORDS WRITTEN ABOUT LEADERSHIP IT WAS DIFFICULT TO KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN.

TONIGHT I FIND MYSELF IN A SIMILAR POSITION TO MY MALAYSIAN COLLEAGUES.  HOW TO DESCRIBE ONE OF ENGLAND’S MOST ILLUSTRIOUS SONS AND ONE OF BRITAIN’S GREATEST WARTIME LEADERS? THERE CAN BE FEW IF ANY NAVAL OFFICERS ABOUT WHO SO MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN,

A MAN WHOSE PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL LIVES HAVE BEEN SO DISSECTED SO THOROUGHLY AND SO OFTEN. SO RATHER THAN DWELL ON THE CHARACTER OF LORD NELSON I WOULD LIKE TO CONSIDER THE MASSIVE IMPACT OF HIS VICTORIES.

HE SERVED A NAVY ON THE DEEDS OF WHICH AN EMPIRE WAS CREATED. TODAY IT SEEMS OUR POLITICIANS CONVENIENTLY FORGET THAT NEARLY THREE QUARTERS OF THIS PLANET IS COVERED BY WATER. NINETY PERCENT OF THE WORLD’S COMMERCE TRAVELS BY SEA AND THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF THE HUMAN RACE EXISTS WITHIN A FEW HUNDRED MILES OF THE OCEAN. SIR JONATHAN BAND WHEN HE RETIRED SEVEN YEARS AGO AS FIRST SEA LORD ACCUSED BRITISH POLITICIANS OF “SEA BLINDNESS” AND “LOSING THE ABILITY TO THINK STRATEGICALLY”. HE SAID  “PEOPLE HAVE NO IDEA THAT  THEIR LIGHTS ARE STAYING ON BECAUSE OF LIQUID GAS ARRIVING IN MILFORD HAVEN DAILY. THERE IS A WORLD OUT THERE WITH A HUGE MARITIME ELEMENT… WE CALL IT EARTH; WE SHOULD CALL IT THE SEA.”

WE SHOULD BE IN NO DOUBT THAT AS THE INHERITORS OF ALL THAT WAS ONCE GREAT ABOUT BRITAIN WE WOULD NOT BE SITTING HERE TONIGHT IN THIS PROUD YOUNG NATION OF MALAYSIA, TRANSFORMED FROM EMPIRE, SHARING JOINT VISIONS OF THE RULE OF LAW,

PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY, CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY AND EQUAL MEMBERSHIP OF A COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS WITHOUT THE WILLING SACRIFICE IN BLOOD OF A ONCE GREAT NAVY. HAD NELSON FAILED WE MIGHT ALL NOW BE FRENCH SPEAKERS AND AS MY DAUGHTER REMINDED ME AT THE WEEKEND, USING NAPOLEON’S REPUBLICAN CALENDAR. IF SO TODAY’S DATE WOULD BE DECADE TRES IN THE MONTH OF VENDEMIERE IN THE YEAR 223! 

THERE ARE AT VARIOUS POINTS IN HISTORY, MEN WHO ARE PLUCKED FROM OBSCURITY TO IMMORTALITY. THE ROYAL NAVY HAS HAD ITS FAIR SHARE OF SUCH HEROES. THEY WERE OF COURSE MEN OF THEIR TIMES WITH CHARACTER WEAKNESSES WHICH SOCIETY IN THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY WOULD BE QUICK TO CONDEMN AND CAST ASIDE.

IN 1580 VICE ADMIRAL SIR FRANCIS DRAKE WAS THE FIRST ENGLISHMAN TO CIRCUMNAVIGATE THE GLOBE, LESS THAN A DECADE LATER SOME VERY RUDE SPANIARDS IN A LARGE ARMADA ALMOST INTERRUPTED HIS GAME OF BOWLS. BUT WHILE HE WAS AN ENGLISH HERO WHO KEPT ENGLAND SAFE AND A CONSTANT THORN IN THE SIDE OF THE SPANISH, HE HAD ALSO BEEN A SLAVE TRADER AND AS MUCH A PIRATE AS A PRIVATEER.

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.  THE FATHER OF THE ROYAL NAVY, SIR ROBERT BLAKE, WHO  ACCORDING TO ONE BIOGRAPHER ACHIEVED SUCCESSES “NEVER EXCELLED, NOT EVEN BY NELSON” WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR DEFEATING THE ROYALIST NAVY.  BLAKE WAS FIRST A POLITICIAN, A PARLIAMENTARIAN THEN A SUCCESSFUL COMMANDER IN CROMWELL’S ROUNDHEAD ARMY. APPOINTED GENERAL AT SEA IN 1649 HE WAS THE FIRST LEADER TO KEEP A FLEET AT SEA OVER A BRITISH WINTER.

BLAKE ALSO PRODUCED THE NAVY’S FIRST EVER SET OF RULES AND REGULATIONS, LISTING 39 OFFENCES AND THEIR PUNISHMENTS — MOSTLY DEATH. HE INTRODUCED FIGHTING INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE NAVY, OVERHAULING NAVAL TACTICS, INTRODUCING NEW TECHNIQUES FOR BLOCKADES AND LANDINGS AS WELL THE SINGLE LINE AHEAD BATTLE FORMATION WHICH NELSON WAS TO DEFEAT AT TRAFALGAR A HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS LATER. ON HIS DEATH BLAKE RECEIVED A STATE FUNERAL AND WAS BURIED AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY BUT AFTER THE RESTORATION OF THE MONARCHY HIS ‘TREACHEROUS’ BODY WAS EXHUMED IN 1661 AND DUMPED IN A COMMON GRAVE ON THE ORDERS OF KING CHARLES II.

EIGHT YEARS AFTER NELSON JOINED THE NAVY ANOTHER ILLUSTRIOUS AND INFLUENTIAL OFFICER WAS MURDERED. JAMES COOK WAS THE SON OF A SCOTTISH FARM LABOURER WHO AMONG MANY ACHIEVEMENTS WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR DISCOVERING HAWAII, MUCH OF THE EASTERN SEABOARD OF AUSTRALIA AND CIRCUMNAVIGATING NEW ZEALAND. COOK’S VOYAGES WERE INVOLVED IN ANOTHER UNUSUAL FIRST: THE FIRST FEMALE TO CIRCUMNAVIGATE THE GLOBE WAS A GOAT WHO MADE THAT MEMORABLE JOURNEY TWICE PRESSED INTO SERVICE AS THE PERSONAL MILK PROVIDER FOR COOK, ABOARD HMS ENDEAVOR.

IT WAS THROUGH THE SKILL, HARDSHIPS AND DEDICATION OF CHARACTERS LIKE DRAKE, BLAKE AND COOK AND SCORES OF OTHER BRITISH NAVAL TALENTS THAT THE SEEDS WERE SOWN TO HARVEST A NAVY THAT WOULD FIGHT AND WIN AT SEA AGAINST THE EMPIRE OF THE WORLD’S FIRST MODERN EUROPEAN TYRANT, NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.

CAPTAIN COOK BEGAN HIS LIFE AT SEA IN THE MERCHANT NAVY AS AN APPRENTICE AT SEVENTEEN. LORD NELSON, THE SON OF A NORFOLK CLERGYMAN, WAS MORE FORTUNATE.

HIS UNCLE, A ROYAL NAVY CAPTAIN, TOOK HIM TO SEA AT THE TENDER AGE OF 12. STIULL AS A BOY IN HIS EARLY YEARS HE VENTURED INTO THE FAR NORTHERN ARCTIC CHASING A POLAR BEAR AND AS FAR EAST AS INDIA WHERE HE SAW HIS FIRST ACTION AT 17, CAUGHT MALARIA BY 18 AND PASSED HIS LIEUTENANT’S EXAMS AT 19. THIS WAS THE TIME OF THE AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE AND NELSON DISTINGUISHED HIMSELF IN THE WEST INDIES.

 SO MUCH SO THAT IN JUST OVER TWO YEARS HE HAD BEEN GIVEN COMMAND OF A FRIGATE AND PROMOTED TO POST- CAPTAIN THREE MONTHS BEFORE HIS 21^ST BIRTHDAY. AFTER BESIEGING AND CAPTURING A SPANISH FORT IN NICARAGUA HE AGAIN SUCCUMBED TO MALARIA. THE NEXT FEW YEARS SAW HIM AT SEA OFF CANADA AND THE AMERICAS UNTIL PEACE WAS DECLARED IN 1783. IT IS SOMETIMES FORGOTTEN THAT BRITAIN AND ESPECIALLY HER NAVY HAD BEEN FIGHTING A WAR ON MANY FRONTS AS THE AMERICANS HAD BEEN JOINED BY THE FRENCH, DUTCH AND SPANISH AND CONFLICT HAD RANGED FROM THE WEST INDIES TO INDIA.

IN PEACETIME THE NAVY SHRANK AND REMARKABLE AS IT MAY SOUND THE BY THEN MARRIED CAPTAIN NELSON WAS UNEMPLOYED AND PLACED ON HALF PAY FOR ALMOST FIVE YEARS. LIKE MANY YOUNG ADULTS TODAY FINANCIAL REALITIES MEANT HE TOOK HIS WIFE TO LIVE WITH HIS PARENTS. THAT PERIOD MUST HAVE SEEMED LIKE A LIFETIME. IN 1793 HE WAS FINALLY GIVEN ANOTHER COMMAND, HMS AGAMEMNON, AND IN THE FOLLOWING MONTH, JOY! FRANCE DECLARED WAR. 1793 WAS ALSO THE YEAR IN WHICH HE WAS TO FIRST MEET EMMA, LADY HAMILTON.

SERVING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN NELSON’S PROFESSIONAL REPUTATION RAPIDLY GREW. IN HELPING LEAD THE JOINT SUCCESSFUL ASSAULT ON CORSICA, SHRAPNEL CAUSED HIM THE EVENTUAL LOSS OF SIGHT IN HIS RIGHT EYE. THE MID SEVENTEEN NINETIES WERE GENERALLY NOT A HAPPY PERIOD FOR NELSON THE PATRIOT AS HE WATCHED AS THE FRENCH GAIN GROUND IN ITALY IN WHAT WAS A FAST MOVING LAND WAR. AS A COMMODORE HE OVERSAW THE EVACUATION OF LIVORNO, THE WITHDRAWAL FROM CORSICA AND THE EVACUATION FROM ELBA BEFORE HEADING FOR GIBRALTAR.  

HIS STAR SHINED BRIGHTEST AT THE BATTLE OF CAPE ST VINCENT WHEN IN 1797 HE SHOWED GREAT INITIATIVE AS WELL AS HIS TALENT FOR DISOBEYING ORDERS WHEN HE BROKE FORMATION AND AFTER AN HOUR OF EXCHANGING BROADSIDES LED A BOARDING PARTY TO CAPTURE NOT ONE BUT TWO MUCH LARGER SPANISH SHIPS. HIS BATTLE CRY OF “WESTMINSTER ABBEY OR GLORIOUS VICTORY” WAS TO PROVE SO PRESCIENT EIGHT YEARS LATER.

FOR HIS PART IN THE BATTLE HE WAS GIVEN A KNIGHTHOOD. THAT JULY WHEN HIMSELF LEADING THE FAILED ASSAULT ON TENERIFE, HE TOOK A BULLET IN HIS RIGHT ARM LEADING TO A PARTIAL AMPUTATION. DESPONDENTLY HE WROTE IN HIS DESPATCHES “A LEFT-HANDED ADMIRAL WILL NEVER AGAIN BE CONSIDERED AS USEFUL, THEREFORE THE SOONER I GET TO A VERY HUMBLE COTTAGE THE BETTER, AND MAKE ROOM FOR A BETTER MAN TO SERVE THE STATE.”  NO ONE WHO MATTERED BLAMED HIM FOR TENERIFE AND HE RETURNED TO A HERO’S WELCOME IN ENGLAND FOR HIS DARING AT  CAPE ST VINCENT.  SIX MONTHS LATER HE WAS BACK IN THE MEDITERRANEAN HUNTING NAPOLEON’S INVASION FLEET. 

DUE TO HIS DILIGENCE AND PERSEVERANCE HE TRACKED THE FRENCH TO EGYPT. IN  THE ENSUING BATTLE OF THE NILE HE WAS WOUNDED AGAIN BUT HIS FLEET SUCCESSFULLY DESTROYED OR CAPTURED ALMOST ALL THE FRENCH FLEET, SPECTACULARLY STRANDING NAPOLEON AND HIS LANDING FORCE IN EGYPT, WRECKING NAPOLEON’S AMBITIONS OVER INDIA – TRULY A HUGELY SIGNIFICANT STRATEGIC VICTORY.

MORE HONOURS AND PLAUDITS CAME NELSON’S WAY ALTHOUGH HIS VANITY MAY EXPLAIN WHY HE WAS MORTIFIED WHEN MADE ONLY A BARON, DECLARING HE WOULD RATHER HAVE RECEIVED NO TITLE THAN THAT OF A MERE BARONY. HE WAS CHEERED BY HIS RECEPTION IN THE KINGDOM OF NAPLES, WHERE MRS HAMILTON APPEARED REGULARLY BY HIS SIDE. HE RETURNED TO ENGLAND OVERLAND WITH THE HAMILTONS ALMOST TWO YEARS AFTER THE BATTLE OF THE NILE HAVING SPENT MUCH OF THAT TIME SUPPORTING THE DEFENCE, EVACUATION AND THE SUBSEQUENT RESTORATION OF THE KINGDOM OF NAPLES.

BY NOW A VICE ADMIRAL, NELSON LED THE ACTION AT THE BATTLE OF COPENHAGEN. IT BEGAN INAUSPICIOUSLY AND HIS SENIOR, ADMIRAL PARKER STANDING OUT TO SEA SIGNALLED THE RECALL. 

ON BEING TOLD OF THE SIGNAL NELSON RESPONDED ‘I HAVE ONLY ONE EYE. I HAVE A RIGHT TO BE BLIND SOMETIMES.’ HE RAISED THE TELESCOPE TO HIS BLIND EYE, AND SAID ‘I REALLY DO NOT SEE THE SIGNAL’. HIS SUBSEQUENT VICTORY AT COPENHAGEN SAW HIM FINALLY CREATED A VISCOUNT.

STRATEGICALLY IT HAD ENDED A COALITION BETWEEN THE RUSSIAN, PRUSSIAN, DANISH AND SWEDISH GOVERNMENTS WHO WERE ANGRY AT BRITAIN’S BLOCKADE OF THE BALTIC.

IN 1803 NELSON BECAME COMMANDER IN CHIEF OF THE MEDITERRANEAN FLEET AND BOARDED HIS FLAGSHIP HMS VICTORY. THE NEXT YEAR AND A HALF WERE SPENT BLOCKADING THE FRENCH FLEET IN TOULON. NO BETTER PREPARATION FOR FIGHTING AT SEA IS THERE THAN BEING AT SEA AND TRAINING YOUR GUN’S CREWS DAILY. DESPITE THE FRENCH BRIEFLY ESCAPING AND BEING CHASED BY NELSON TO THE WEST INDIES AND BACK. 

BY TRAFALGAR, WHILE THE ROYAL NAVY WAS BATTLE HARDENED AND SUPERBLY PREPARED AND TRAINED. THE MONTHS BEFORE TRAFALGAR HAD ALSO ALLOWED NELSON TO DEVISE NEW TACTICS AND TO DISCUSS THEM IN DETAIL WITH HIS BAND OF BROTHER OFFICERS COMMANDING THE BRITISH FLEET.

ON THE MORNING OF 21^ST OCTOBER 1805, KNOWING A COMBINED FLEET HAD PUT TO SEA TO FLEE TO THE MEDITERRANEAN, OUTNUMBERED BUT CONFIDENT OF VICTORY NELSON ORDERED BATTLE STATIONS.  HE STILL HAD TIME TO GO BELOW AND WRITE HIS WILL AND THIS MEMORABLE AND MOVING PRAYER.

“MAY THE GREAT GOD, WHOM I WORSHIP, GRANT TO MY COUNTRY AND FOR THE BENEFIT OF EUROPE IN GENERAL, A GREAT AND GLORIOUS VICTORY: AND MAY NO MISCONDUCT, IN ANY ONE, TARNISH IT: AND MAY HUMANITY AFTER VICTORY BE THE PREDOMINANT FEATURE IN THE BRITISH FLEET.

FOR MYSELF INDIVIDUALLY, I COMMIT MY LIFE TO HIM WHO MADE ME AND MAY HIS BLESSING LIGHT UPON MY ENDEAVOURS FOR SERVING MY COUNTRY FAITHFULLY. TO HIM I RESIGN MYSELF AND THE JUST CAUSE WHICH IS ENTRUSTED TO ME TO DEFEND. AMEN. AMEN. AMEN. “

AFTER THAT HE ORDERED THAT MEMORABLE SIGNAL TO BE HOIST “ENGLAND EXPECTS THAT EVERY MAN WILL DO HIS DUTY” SWIFTLY FOLLOWED BY THE ORDER FOR “CLOSE ACTION”. THE FIRST SHOTS WERE EXCHANGED AT NOON. THE QUARTERDECK OF AN ADMIRAL’S SHIP LEADING ONE OF TWO COLUMNS INTO BATTLE WAS A BLOODY PLACE TO BE. BY ONE O CLOCK NELSON HAD SEEN HIS SECRETARY CUT IN HALF AND HIS CLERK FALL AT HIS SIDE.  THEN A FRENCH MARKSMAN HIT NELSON. IT WAS A FATAL BLOW.  CARRIED BELOW TO THE SURGEON, HE DIED SOME THREE AND HALF HOURS LATER. BY THEN HE HAD THANKFULLY LEARNT OF HIS VICTORY. HIS LAST WORDS: “THANK GOD I HAVE DONE MY DUTY”.

NEWS REACHED ENGLAND TWO WEEKS LATER. THE TIMES ON NOVEMBER 7^TH PRINTED COLLINGWOOD’S DESPATCHES  AND IN ITS EDITORIAL WROTE: “THE VICTORY CREATED NONE OF THOSE ENTHUSIASTIC EMOTIONS IN THE PUBLIC MIND, WHICH THE SUCCESS OF OUR NAVAL ARMS HAVE IN EVERY FORMER INSTANCE PRODUCED. THERE WAS NOT A MAN WHO DID NOT THINK THAT THE LIFE OF THE HERO OF THE NILE WAS TOO GREAT A PRICE FOR THE CAPTURE AND DESTRUCTION OF TWENTY SAIL OF FRENCH AND SPANISH MEN OF WAR.” 

LORD NELSON, LIKE SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, SIR ROBERT BLAKE AND CAPTAIN COOK BEFORE HIM AND FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY OFFICERS AND MEN AT TRAFALGAR, HAD DIED IN SERVICE, AT SEA AND OUT OF SIGHT OF THEIR ISLAND HOME. HE HAD SPENT 30 OF HIS FORTY SEVEN YEARS AT SEA.

AS A NAVAL OFFICER WHAT NELSON HAD ACHIEVED WAS THE CULMINATION OF THE WORK OF HIS PREDECESSORS ACROSS THE CENTURIES. THE STRATEGIC RESULT OF THE NILE AND THEN TRAFALGAR WAS THE HEGEMONY OF THE WORLD’S OCEANS THROUGHOUT THE NEXT 100 YEARS, DURING WHICH TIME  BRITAIN BUILT AND CONSOLIDATED AN EMPIRE THE LIKES OF WHICH THE WORLD HAD NEVER SEEN.  

FURTHERMORE, HIS PORTS STILL BLOCKADED NAPOLEON WAS FORCED INTO A CONTINENTAL STRATEGY AND ULTIMATELY HIS DOOMED RETREAT FROM MOSCOW. THE SPANISH INFLUENCE OVER ITS COLONIES IN SOUTH AMERICA WAS FATED TO FAILURE AFTER 1805 AND THEY SOON BEGAN TO THROW OFF THE CHAINS OF THE SPANISH EMPIRE AS A RESULT OF NELSON’S VICTORY.

AS A MAN, PERHAPS LIKE NO OTHER BEFORE OR SINCE, NELSON WAS GRANTED THE UNCONDITIONAL AFFECTION OF A NATION. ROBERT GRAVES WROTE A POEM SUGGESTING THE ADMIRALTY WAS NOT QUITE SO ENTHRALLED BY HIS EGO HOWEVER MUCH HE WAS A GENIUS IN NAVAL WARFARE AND STRATEGY.  

THE WHOLE FLEET LOVED HIM AND  BRITONS EVERYWHERE IGNORED HIS PERSONAL FAILINGS AND WORSHIPPED THE HERO.  AND WHAT A HERO, WHEN TODAY, 209 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH GRATEFUL BRITONS AROUND THE WORLD STILL STAND IN AWE AND HONOUR HIS MEMORY.  LADIES AND GENTLEMEN I WOULD ASK YOU TO RISE AND TOAST “THE IMMORTAL MEMORY” OF VICE ADMIRAL LORD VISCOUNT NELSON.

 © TOM FREDERICK BOOKS 2014